Playing Games
by Alic3Paig3
Summary: In response to the new Lava Challenge circling around social media, Alya decides to pull her friends into the silly game. It quickly spirals out of control as shenanigans ensue.


Alya was determined to get Marinette and Adrien together one way or another but a recent trend on social media called the lava challenge was giving her the opportunity to mess with them a bit. Nino watched his girlfriend practically bouncing in her seat as the school day ended. The four of them were headed to the movie after school, but Nino was wary of the mischievous look on Alya's face. Marinette and Adrien were totally oblivious to this fact and chatted happily a few paces in front of them.

Alya nudged Nino and pulled out her phone to start recording. With a huge smirk she yelled, "The floor is lava!"

Nino panicked slightly and hoped on a nearby car. He quickly whipped around to look at Marinette and Adrien's reactions. Marinette had somehow backflipped onto a nearby railing and was balancing perfectly. Adrien on the other had an even more drastic reaction, he jumped from the ground on a nearby light post and was currently holding on for dear life while staring at the ground in horror.

Nino slipped off the car from laughing so hard; the world's most oblivious teen and the world's clumsiest seemed to have an amazing set of skills when it came to playing the floor is lava. Alya was another level of shocked at watching her best friend perform a perfect backflip and landing onto a slim piece of metal. Adrien climbed down after a moment, and Marinette's clumsiness finally got the best of her causing her to topple to the group. Adrien rushed over to help her up while Alya played back the recording with a glint in her eye that didn't bode well for the two who were sheepishly trying to explain their reactions. This initial experience started them down the path of complete chaos.

* * *

The next time Alya called that the floor is lava the four of them were walking into the school. Only a few other people lingered around, as she called "the floor is lava!"

Adrien and Marinette both dropped their backpacks without hesitation. Adrien ran over to the stairs, grabbed the railing and held himself in a pull up position with his feet hovering off the ground, and not touching the stairs. Marinette had clambered her way up a stack of the chairs and onto the top of a folded-up table in the corner of the courtyard. Nino looked around where the few others around had hopped up onto the nearby benches, and groaned as he realized that there were no places for a normal human being to get off the ground. Nino shook his head and graciously accepted his defeat while picking up the discarded backpacks. Adrien dropped down and rushed over to help Marinette from on top of the table.

The next time happened on a morning that Marinette had miraculously shown up early for class. Nearly everyone was there minus a few stragglers. Marinette and Adrien both looked dead tired. They were slumped over their desks almost asleep when Alya called it.

"The floor and desks are lava!" Most the class panicked and hoped into their chairs with only a few casualties. Mylène had even jumped into Ivan's arms in her panic to get away from the lava. Poor Ivan suffered a defeat to save his beloved. Adrien and Marinette had done something similar. Adrien had immediately jumped onto the table before realizing it was lava as well and scrambled to get off. Marinette had jumped to stand on the bench and quickly opened her arms for Adrien to jump into. Adrien took the chance and hoped over the desk separating them and hugged Marinette tightly to keep them both safe.

Nino had brought his own legs up from the floor and onto the bench but at seeing his best bud's reaction started laughing so hard that he fell off the chair. The entirety of the class was howling with laughter at the oblivious teens when Miss Bustier finally walked in. She gave Marinette and Adrien a strange look and tried to call the class to attention. Adrien sheepishly detangled himself from Marinette's embrace and helped the blushing girl down. They both sat back in their respective seats slightly mortified at what had just happened.

* * *

The next time it happened the four of them were in Adrien's bedroom Nino was over at one of the arcade machines, and Adrien had just set down a tray of snacks that had been delivered. Alya was curled up on the couch watching Marinette browse the upstairs area of books. As soon as Marinette reached the section of books that was just above Adrien's bed she called it. Alya had been trying to win against Marinette or Adrien for some time now and with nothing in sight for Marinette to climb on Alya jumped at the opportunity. Nino groaned but jumped up onto the arcade machine loudly complaining about Alya sabotaging his game. Adrien had previously opened a window when they first came in and jumped into the window seal. Marinette's was by far the most entertaining to watch. She quickly glanced around only to find that the ladder that was usually there was at the opposite end of the books.

"3… 2…" Marinette panicked as Alya was nearly finished counting down and vaulted over the glass railing down onto Adrien's bed. Alya gasped in horror as her friend fell from the second floor. Adrien was the first to react as he jumped down from the ledge and started moving to try and catch Marinette. However, none of them knew how used to jumped from ledges the girl was. Marinette had jumped without hesitation and landed softly on Adrien's bed. She landed perfectly in the middle and beamed with pride at having beat Alya's countdown once again.

Marinette stuck her tongue out Alya before realizing someone was amiss. She considered the shocked faces of her friends and giggled nervously. There wasn't a good reason that she had just done that other than pure instinct. Nino toppled off the game much like the first time Marinette had the first time they played. That marked the first moment Alya began to have her suspicions about Marinette. Adrien was equally as shocked but he easily brushed it off in favor of checking Marinette over for injuries and then scolding her on how reckless that was.

* * *

After a few more times of calling the floor lava Alya was quite certain of her theory. Alya was following Ladybug and Chat Noir during their pre-scheduled patrols waiting for the perfect moment to call it. Finally, the two superheroes stopped on a rooftop probably to talk a bit before they went their separate ways for the evening.

Alya hopped off her bike and located the fire escape so she could climb up and see the way Ladybug would react. Her phone wasn't even recording for once as Alya tried to figure out if her best friend was in fact Ladybug.

Alya had managed to get to the roof without either one noticing. They sat next to each other and spoke in low voices until Alya called out, "The floor is lava!" On instinct they reacted, Chat Noir pulled out his baton and quickly shot straight up from the ground to balance on the top of it. Ladybug unhooked her yoyo and threw it to hang from an overhang a building over.

Alya realized not only that her suspicions about Marinette being Ladybug were true but that Chat Noir's similar look to Adrien Agreste was no coincidence. Ladybug and Chat both shared a panicked look before both shooting off in opposite directions. Alya climbed down the same way she came up already formulating a plan on how to call the two out on their secret identities.

* * *

Alya suffered through an entire week with the two secret heroes before getting a chance to put her plan into action. Moments after Marinette and Adrien disappeared Alya grabbed Nino and dragged him towards the akuma fight. It was a simple one with neither of the heroes needing to call for their abilities, and damage was minimal.

Alya cut the live stream and pocketed her phone before dragging Nino to follow the two superheroes.

"You're not gonna record them?" Nino was shocked that Alya had put her phone away normally if the two heroes were around she wasn't without it in her hand whether taking video or pictures.

Alya shook her head no bothering to answer, she was focused on tracking the two heroes to a rooftop that provided them cover from the people who had been watching the fight. They hadn't counted on Alya having an idea of where they might go. They were back on the same rooftop from several nights ago when she first confirmed her theory. Alya ushered Nino up the fire escape and told him to be extremely quiet.

Once the two had made it to the roof Alya got as close as she dared before calling out, "Hey Marinette, Adrien, the floor is lava!"

The initial reaction was the same as last time. They both looked for the quickest way off the floor. Chat scooped up Ladybug in his arms and lifted them both onto the top of his baton, where Ladybug comfortably sat in Chat's hold. It wasn't until they turned to beam happily at each other that the rest of the sentence registered for them. They broke away from each other and dropped back down to the ground trying to sputter out covers as to why the reacted to the names.

Nino stared in shock while Alya rolled her eyes, even as super heroes the two dorks were blushing madly and trying to cover things up.

"Yeah, hi, you both can give it up now. I figured out who you are." Alya stood with her arms crossed focused on the two of them.

Chat and Ladybug shared a scared look before releasing their transformations. Both of them had their eyes closed and turned away from each other only prolonging the inevitable.

"My Lady?" Adrien made the first move, as he reached his hand out behind him to grip Marinette's hand, "On the count of three?"

Marinette squeaked out an affirmative but Alya didn't give them time, "Nope, no give it up, just look seriously, I'm not waiting to get answers."

The pair jumped and looked at not only each other but Alya as well. Marinette started panicking, with Adrien only slightly calmer. The two blushed heavily before finally whirling around to face their friends, "How'd you figure it out?"

Alya scoffed and smiled at them, "Come on both of you pulled some pretty incredible feats while playing. I just put two and two together, especially after you vaulted that railing in Adrien's bedroom Marinette. That was pretty obvious no one else would've been that extra just for a game."

Marinette giggled, "Well at least now next time you call it we can use more of our skills. There were always great places to get to if you had the right mindset." Adrien beamed brightly as Nino, who finally had gotten past the shock, groaned.

"Aw come on, it was bad enough before! Now you guys are gonna use your superhero skills as an advantage, we need some rules to keep this fair!"

The four of them shared a laugh and climbed down the fire escape until Alya called once again, "The floor is lava!"


End file.
